A friend has had terrible problems with the Post Office Savings - into which he has his pension paid. He has not been able to access the account with his pension for 9 weeks.
He set up a nominated account (Barclays) in to which to transfer the money out of the PO - just so that he could start living again.
Having set up the nominated account: his PO account had to be "frozen" for a full week : "security".
Having waited the full week we phoned to arranged the transfer to Barclays - I asked when would the transfer be complete. I was told 1700 on the next working day. I asked why it took so long - how was the money transferred - I was told BACS. I queried that and said I thought not - was a Faster Payment electronic transfer used. I was told no!!! I asked to speak to a supervisor - there was no-one available: but I could write in!!!
I advised my friend to try the account this morning - an lo and behold the money was there.
Why on earth the PO could not have said it may take up to 1700 tomorrow - but we suggest that you give it an hour and try it then.
Post Office Savings: the worst financial institution I have *ever* dealt with.
(The account holder has written a letter to their Customer Complaints department authorising me to make an official complaint on his behalf (with no access to the financial details of the account). I phoned up yesterday - a week after the letter was sent - they have not received it in the complaints department yet !!)
(As a matter of interest - does anyone know the quickest and the slowest estimates for times of transfers between different banks - assuming the system is working OK?)